Back catalogue: All genres

Review: Being a 'supergroup' - as Boygenius trio Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus are commonly described - has its pitfalls, one of which is finding time to record and promote your music. It was for this reason that it took the threesome almost five years to record their debut album, The Record, which was released to critical acclaim (the NME called it an 'instant indie classic') earlier this year. The fact that 'The Rest', an EP of unheard songs (literally - no previews were available online prior to release), has followed so quickly suggests that it was recorded at the same time. Either way, it was produced by the band alongside a team of six producers) and delivers more memorable songs in their now familiar American indie-rock style. A treat for fans, all told.

Review: Unfairly labelled as a novel curio when they first emerged, the Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band is a genuine expression of Mighty Mocambos man Bjorn Wagner's love of Trinidadian steel pan music. Their tracks - often, but not always, quirky cover versions - combined authentic funk instrumentation (drums, bass, guitar, horns) with the timeless and distinctive sound of steel drums. BRSB, the combo's fourth album, is another summery and effortlessly entertaining treat. Highlights include the inspired 'Love For The Sake of Dub' (an organic interpretation of Claudja Barry's slo-mo disco classic 'Love For The Sake of Love'), the breaker-friendly cheeriness and heaviness of 'Grilled', a wonderfully woozy and dubbed out stroll through the 'Stranger Things Theme', and the summer sunshine of 'Champion's Walk'.

Review: Until he quit the music industry in the mid-1990s, Shep Pettibone was the most in-demand remixer on the planet - a position he'd held since the late 1970s. This four-disc compilation does a great job of showcasing some of his greatest remixes, all of which are presented in full-length form. There's naturally plenty of versions of big pop singles of the '80s - see the epic 'Mastermix' of Pet Shop Boys' 'West End Girls', as well as rubs of Duran Duran, New Order, Whitney Houston and Belinda Carlisle - as well as a sprint through his celebrated disco and boogie reworks (see disc four). In addition, you'll find versions of some lesser-celebrated gems from the freestyle-era, including heavyweight revisions of Sinammon, Alisha, Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam and The Flirts.

Review: Two years on from the release of their fantastic debut album, Wolo So, Balimaya Project returns with more inspired fusions of polyrhythms, percussion, heady horns, "virtuosic kora styles", contemporary jazz and traditional Mande music. It's a uniquely sweet, deep and gently sun-soaked sound - all emotive vocals, tapped out tribal rhythms, frazzled solos, dreamy acoustic guitars, glistening highlife-influenced electric guitars and sultry, soulful intent. The London-based collective has long been hard-to-pigeonhole, and it's this impeccably realised but sonically adventurous approach - along with the quality of their musicianship - that's been the key to their success. When The Dust Settles will only enhance their rising reputation - it really is that good!

Review: Jason Barton is one man, London based experimental project BArTc. Insubstantial As Ghosts is his 14 track debut album and it comes on the label run by Colin Potter, who is well known for weird electronics thanks to his time as a member of Nurse With Wound. Barton has said that influences include Cabaret Voltaire co-founder Chris Watson and industrial legends such as Coil, Skinny Puppy and Einsturzende Neubauten. The music is built in many layers of synths, found sounds and environmental recordings. It results in organic and experimental sounds that are heavily distorted with various effects.

Review: William Basinski and Janek Schaefer make for a long distance collaboration on this much anticipated new album. It has taken the best part of eight years from conception to final execution but that more than proves worth the wait. Time and duration are recurring themes in their work and during the pandemic yeas in particular those were very much skewed and warped for us all. ". . . on reflection" casts itself free from temporal restraints with delicate piano passages, flickering melodies and drawn out drones that really sink you in deep.

Review: Beatles fans have been waiting for this one for a while and now it is finally here. It was the legendary Liverpool band's seventh album and it came in August 1966. As ever it was an experimental and cutting-edge work of pop rock, indie and psychedelic sounds that was a critical and commercial success. Some of the awards it won include Grammy Award for Best Album Cover as well as being admitted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. The album features classic singles 'Eleanor Rigby' and 'Yellow Submarine' which sound as fresh and new today as ever.

Review: Hadsel, Zach Condon AKA Beirut's first album in four years, is named in honour of the place in which much of it was recorded, a remote Norwegian island that the neo-folk artist stayed in back in 2019. The tranquillity of his surroundings, as well as access to limited instruments (a lo-fi drum machine, a church organ, a basic synthesiser and his trusty acoustic guitar, is reflected in the beauty and slow-burn nature of the music on show, which naturally pushes Condon's distinctive, emotionally charged vocals to the fore and tends towards the atmospheric and musically opaque. The results are genuinely beguiling, with our picks of a very strong bunch including 'The Tern', where Condon's voice sails above sustained organ chords, a tribal-tinged rhythm track, and life-affirming vocal harmonies, and the brass-enhanced warmth of 'So Many Plans'.

Review: While Jim Jupp's work as the Belbury Poly has always touched on pagan imagery, clandestine atmospherics and vintage electronics - with a dash of pastoral instrumentation thrown in from time to time - it's fair to say that he's never released an album quite like The Path, his seventh full-length excursion. Recorded with the help of a band of musicians - bass, guitar, flute, clarinet and piano all feature alongside his familiar analogue and modular synth sounds - and a narrator (poet and spoken word artist Justin Hopper), the album manages to be atmospheric and alluring whilst also being loose and groovy - all re-imagined folk-rock, eyes-closed psychedelia, breezy jazz and library music chic. It will surprise some fans, for sure, but it's a genuinely fantastic album and a huge step forward from a producer who's not content to just plough the same musical furrow.

Review: Can a duo be a supergroup? You could certainly argue that Belief ticks that box, given that it's a collaboration between two titans of the experimental electronic music scene: LEX Records stalwart Bryan Hollon (Boom Bip, Neon Neon) and Warpaint drummer (and frequent sticks-woman for hire) Stella Mozgawa. Interestingly, they've chosen not to explore the challenging end of their output, but rather deliver a set of "improvisational techno" that draws inspiration from the early '90s work of 808 State, LFO and the like. That means wiggly TB-303 acid lines aplenty, alternately dreamy, dubbed-out and futuristic melodic motifs, sci-fi sounds aplenty, and beats that veer from throbbing four-to-the-floor energy to sweaty breakbeats and off-kilter post-electro grooves. The results are uniformly imaginative, impressive and entertaining.

Review: He may be a shoegaze and dream-pop legend, but sometime Ride guitarist and songwriter Andy Bell has spent much of the last few years making ultra-immersive, out-there ambient soundscapes that are as mind-soothing as they are enveloping and, at times, overwhelming. Tidal Love Numbers, his latest album, once again puts his gorgeous, layered guitar playing front and centre, with collaborators Masal (a duo from Essex) providing complimentary harp, synth and drum sounds. They call the resultant four tracks "ambient, astral jazz". That's a fairly apt description, with the four stretched-out tracks sitting somewhere between Bell's own ambient work, the ambient-Americana of Jonny Nash, and the open-minded experiments of 21st century harpists such as Zeena Parkins.

Review: Following a string of singles on Timmion and its lesser-celebrated Stylart Records offshoot, Jonny Benavidez offers up his debut album, My Echo, Shadow & Me. In keeping with Timmion's successful formula, Benavidez is accompanied by the label's sensational (and undeniably authentic-sounding) house band, Cold Diamond & Mink, for a stroll through alternatively loved-up, heartbroken and irresistibly funky soul songs inspired by records from the 1960s. It's a winning formula all told, made even more special and rewarding not by Cold Diamond & Mink's backing and production - which is as good as ever - but the sensationally soulful and sensitive nature of Benavidez's voice.

Review: 'Fragments + Distancing' cultivates a profound sense of meditative stasis with the use of a Moog Mother 32, custom built filters, and various Eurorack modular sequencers, modules, and effects. James continues his proven and unique efforts in creating ethereal tones on this latest collection of songs. Fragments was created by using a method of composition James has been perfecting, where he takes small pieces of unreleased music that he has written stretching over the last 10 years, and runs them through different modes and methods of granular stretching and FFT processing. In some cases, the original audio source was no longer than 20-30 seconds long. PITP is honored to share this collection of music.

Review: Beyonce joins Drake in the house-via-Baltimore club 'renaissance', which has seen to a good deal of major hip-hop & R&B artists working in the styles over the course of entire albums and mixtapes. This being the queen of pop's first album in over six years, some naysayers say songs like 'Break My Soul' (filled with 90s organ and downtempo kicks and snares a-la Robin S) and 'Energy' (packed with batida stylings) are paint-by-numbers, but we beg to differ; for Beyonce, it's a polyglot of reinventory music.

Review: Saxophonist Binker Golding and Moses Boyd made a huge impression with their earliest collaborative releases, winning the 'Best U.K Jazz Act' gong at the 2016 Jazz FM Awards. Their periodic albums since, which explore improvised and semi-improvised free-jazz territory, have been uniformly excellent and their latest, the duo's first for two years, is no exception. They recorded at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios, under the supervision of GRAMMY-winning producer Hugh Padgam, with guest Max Luthert joining in with tape loops and electronics. The result is a magical set full of alternately dreamy and alien-sounding electronic textures, loose-limbed, impeccably recorded jazz drums (you feel like you're sat behind the drum kit, such is the quality of the stereo panning) and winding, expressive, often lengthy sax improvisations. Magical music!

Review: In interviews promoting Fossora, her tenth album, Bjork joked that it started life as "her Clarinet album" - a nod to the set's extensive (and sometimes experimental) use of regular and bass clarinet instrumentation. Really, though, it's her lockdown album, and one partly inspired by the grief she felt following the passing of her mother in 2018. In many ways it's an astonishing set, with the Icelandic artist adding her own distinctive lyrics and vocals - still effortlessly emotional and addictive after all these years - to tracks that brilliantly fuse, mix and mangle red-lined tribal drums, fuzzy IDM style electronics, brass band arrangements, jazz instrumentation and, on the inspired title track, increasingly intense, break-neck dancefloor rhythms that tend towards the gabber end of the spectrum. Unusual, entertaining and utterly beguiling; it's another brilliant album from a genuine one-off.

Review: Since they emerged in 2019, there's been a fair amount of hype around Black Country, New Road, with one noted media outlet calling them, "the best band in the world right now". While that might be a little over-the-top, there's no doubting that they're a unique proposition - as this much-anticipated debut album on Ninja Tune proves. Stylistically, they're hard to pin down, variously fusing post-punk guitars, fuzzy Stereolab synths and folksy strings with thoughtful, story-telling spoken word vocals (think Arab Strap), restless bass guitar and drums and sax sounds that have more in common with the more experimental end of jazz than alternative rock. It's an usual mixture, but a hugely alluring and surprisingly coherent one. For The First Time is, then, a genuinely impressive debut album.

Review: While not one of Black Uhuru's most celebrated albums, Brutal is nonetheless a significant set - one that received a 'best reggae album' nomination following its release in 1986. In keeping with the period, it updated their soulful roots reggae sound for the 1980s by wider use of electronic instrumentation (synthesisers in particular), a high-profile collaboration with Arthur Baker (the grandiose, club-ready 'Great Train Robbery', which boasts many of Baker's production tricks of the period), a surprising amount of eyes-closed rock style guitar solos, and some proper bottom-end action courtesy of Sly & Robbie. Highlights include the reggae-boogie of 'City Vibes', the weighty and dubbed-out 'Dread In The Mountain', and the ear-catching closing cut.

Review: Social Registry brings you Blood On The Wall's new album 'Liferz'. Having gone from hometown heroes to national fan favourites and critical darlings, the band has earned its reputation as top of the rock heap.
Putting out raucously fun records, this is a portrait of a band at the top of their game - somehow they have managed to get even more awesome.

Review: For all of the "it's like 1995 all over again" analysis that greeted the surprise return of Britpop stars Blur, it would count for nothing if the music they were making was a hollow pastiche of the past. Fortunately, The Ballad of Darren, the band's first new album since 2015, is a giddy blast from the past - and reportedly one recorded in a much more cooperative and good-humoured atmosphere than expected. Fans will immediately feel at home, with tracks such as 'St Charles Square' and 'The Narcissist' offering that now familiar mix of weary vocals, squally guitars, low-slung bass and shuffling drums. Whether or not it's a "return to form" is debatable, but it's certainly a refreshing blast from the past for those came of age in the 1990s (and those inspired by Britpop's messy, lager-fuelled energy).

Review: The traditonal way to start a review of any Micko Westmoreland release - and with as is to point out that he's best known for playing Jack Fairey in the mock glam documentary Velvet Goldmine, but with a second strong album in his new, flanked -by-legends incarnation and some highly memorable video promos featuring a succession of alternativ ecomedy greats, that could well be changing. Expect spiky English podst-punk songwriting a la XTC or even Pulp, with recent singles 'Autosexual' and 'What's In A Name' (which includes guest vocals from Kevin Eldon numbering among the highligths.

Review: NYC quartet Body Meta is an interesting proposition. The Work is Slow, their debut album, is tricky to pigeonhole, with the band drawing on their disparate pasts as musicians within the experimental, post-rock, jazz-rock and fusion scenes to deliver winding, unfurling instrumentals that flit between fuzzy, freewheeling intensity and glistening, slow-burn beauty. There's much to enjoy amongst the six tracks on show, from the discordant alt-rock experimentation of 'Horse Flower Storm/Fabuloso', and the squally riffs/mind-altering heaviness of 'Bullitt', to the jazz-flecked, groove-laden psychedelia of 'Rice Tea' and the sun-bright loveliness of 'Ribbon'.

Review: Black Sands, the eagerly anticipated fourth album from Simon Green AKA Bonobo, is no revolutionary change from his signature sound but does come with perhaps even more subtlety and complexity than his previous offerings. Having constantly instilled a degree of integrity and value back into chill out music following the influx of Cafe Del Mar and Coffeeshop compilations, Green once again displays a musicianship that sets him apart as a true artist and producer amongst a sea of downtempo and chillout DJs.
His undeniably clear understanding of composition and arrangement of live instruments has enabled Green to make an album that reaches out through diverse styles, taking influence and inspiration from wherever possible. On Black Sands, Green delves into electronic music and bass more than he did across Animal Magic, Dial "M" For Monkey or Days To Come but does so with enough subtlety and finesse to refrain from causing a radical shift in his product. Tracks like "Kiara," "We Could Forever" and "All In Forms" all utilise beats and bass in a more contemporary outlook than we are used to with Bonobo. Of course the instrumental feel is still there for all to see. Title track "Black Sands" takes this position for almost seven minutes of a horn infused waltz whereas "Kong" assumes the traditional soul-jazz Bonobo take and "Animals" lets delicate drum patterns guide us through pleasing tempo shifts.
The instrumental vibe is highlighted further in the album's approach to vocals. Unlike his last album, Days To Come which was littered with vocals, Black Sands houses only three tracks that contain vocals. The breathy vocals of Andreya Triana complete tracks like "Stay the Same" and "The Keeper" turning them in more traditional songs. Black Sands is another loving crafted offering that uses orchestral arrangements but this time merged with more of a dance aesthetic. As he continues to make chillout more credible in his experimental way, it's no wonder that Bonobo is one of the biggest artists to come from the excellent Ninja Tune.

Review: The superb Greyscale project from the Lithuanian label continues with another gorgeous album, Strange Fog. It's a split release that finds Genning on the first six tunes and BOTN on the last five. These are evocative and picturesque ambient pieces that invite you deep into wide open spaces and have you gazing at the sonic scenery. Things start lo-fi and rather foggy but delicate melodies bright light and hope as the album plays out and you are cast ever more adrift from the real world and all the nagging anxieties that come with it.

Review: A new, exhaustive four disc collection of rarities and demos from Bowie's Hunky Dory era, providing a plethora of alternative takes on his early 70s flaxen haired initial heyday. A mixture of originals, alternative versions and covers, this is hippie Bowie in full lo-fi glory, sure to be lapped up by his still-growing legion of fans.

Review: 'Moonage Daydream' is the latest addition to the Bowie franchise; an epic film of never-seen-before Bowie footage, recolourised and repackaged to form an experimental cinematic odyssey for today's generation of art rock lovers. The soundtrack sees an insta-release to complement the launch of Parlophone's new digital streaming service; it's got an exclusive early version of 'Hunky Dory' in there, as well as a live version of 'Rock n' Roll With Me'. A kaleidoscopic LP from the master of reinvention, posthumously reinventing himself once more.

Review: When tasked with compiling his first After Dark compilation for eight years, musical font-of-all-knowledge Bill Brewster decided to go "slow and low", picking an impressively eclectic collection of low-tempo outings old and new. The results are undeniably impressive, with Brewster serving up an entertaining and eye-opening mixture of twinkling, jazz-flecked electronica (T.O.E), synth-laden proto-Balearic dreaminess (Island Band), Weatherall-esque dark disco psychedelia (Brewster's Hotel Motel project remixing Jeb Loy Nichols), squelchy nu-disco deepness (Ray Mang dubbing out Khruangbin), acid-flecked revivalist proto-house (Rhythm Plate), little-known, 80s soul era synth-pop (Debbie & The Code), future Balearic anthems (Nail re-editing Gilbert O'Sullivan), saucer-eyed, piano-sporting space house (Gus Patterson) and ultra-deep electro (Carl Finlow). As usual, Brewster has largely avoided familiar favourites, instead showcasing obscurities that deserve wider attention.

Review: After what seems like an eternity, Warp has finally decided to give Broadcast's Microtonics series a full release. Initially made available only to fans at gigs, the two-volume series saw the band experimenting not with their krautrock-influenced brand of trippy electronic pop, but rather the kind of music concrete and synthesizer experiments that were once the preserve of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Peter Zinovieff and the various modular synthesis fetishists that came in their wake. For that reason, it's not Broadcast at their most accessible, but if you're into vintage synth sounds and admirable experimental electronica, Microtonics makes for hugely enjoyable listening.

Review: The unstoppable dub techno and ambient label Greyscale seems to drop new music each week. This time it is BT Gate X-138's 'kV Pylon' that serves as the musical vehicle to take us on a trip through rich sonic landscapes and an array of emotions. Over seventy sublime and spacious minutes, this vital CD goes from grainy and lo-fi moodiness on the opener to explorations of the ocean floor on '330kV Test' via gloriously uplifting and optimistic pieces of melodic beauty such as '330kV Test'. It is another triumph from a label and artist that will find favour with all techno and ambient lovers.

Review: After years spent delivering heady fusions of deep funk and Afro-funk on Daptone Records, The Budos Band resurface on Diamond West, an imprint founded by two of the band's key members earlier this year. Their first missive on the California-based imprint is as rousing and fiery as ever, with their usual riotous and heavyweight sound being subtly expanded via nods towards psych-funk, Mariachi Band music and the funk-rock sound made famous by Sly and the Family Stone. The six scorching instrumentals on show are all superb, with our current favourites including the punchy 'The Devil Doesn't Care', the trippy solo-laden explosion that is 'KRITIN' and the deliciously psychedelic and suspenseful 'Curled Steel'.

Review: Tropical rock and "Island escapism" hero Jimmy Buffett passed away in September, a few weeks after finishing recording on Equal Strain on All Parts, his 32nd and final studio album. As final hurrahs go, it's quietly impressive, with the American singer-songwriter - backed by the Coral Reefer Band and a smattering of high-profile guest performers - delivering a jaunty, All-American blend of horn-sporting blues-rock, psych-country, semi-acoustic sing-alongs and tropical swamp-funk. Highlights include the humid, steel pan-sporting dance-rock of 'My Gummie Just Kicked In' (featuring fellow celebrity stoner and all-round legend Paul McCartney on bass), the fiddle-sporting hoedown that is 'Close Calls', the cheery 'Like My Dog' and Emylou Harris collaboration 'Mozambique'.

Review: Of all the artists past and present who claim to let their music do their talking for them, Burial is one of the elite band of whom this truly is the case. In fact, so reluctant is he to engage with the cult-of-personality hoopla that surrounds almost every modern producer and musician of merit, that he remains a genuine recluse; he has never appeared live, only one obliquely-angled publicity photograph is known to exist, and the number of interviews he has given can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Yet despite this, his music speaks loud and wide, and the world has been listening ever since his 'South London Boroughs' EP debut on Hyperdub in March 2005. His eponymous album, which began life as a low-key release in May 2006, is now widely regarded as the benchmark release of the ever-widening dubstep genre, picking up unanimous critical acclaim along the way, and ending the year heavily featured in many 'best of' polls. Now Burial returns with 'Untrue', a new record of weird soul music, which lovingly processes spectral female voices into vaporised R&B and smudged 2step garage. Vocal lines are blurred, smeared, pitched up pitched down and pitch bent until their content is cast adrift from their original context and they whisper their saccharin sweet nothings into the void. The album continues with the debut's crackle-drenched yearning and bustling syncopations, haunted by the ghosts of rave, but also reveals some new Burial treats with a more glowing, upbeat energy. Kicking off with the skittering 2step syncopations and vocal science of 'Archangel', 'Near Dark' and 'Ghost Hardware', before long it descends into a space of radiant divas and ambience. Where 'Burial' first was humid, suffocating and unrelentingly sad, 'Untrue' is less sunless. Many of the tracks are so sweet, they become toxic, underscored by the almost geological rumbles of growling basslines. Unlike the overpoweringly melancholic prevailing mood of before, Burial's sound is now better defined as a downcast euphoria typified by the epic, muted optimism of the album's last track 'Raver'. Forget central heating the radioactivity of this album is all that you'll need to keep you warm this winter. 'Untrue' is available as full 13 track digipack CD, including recent underground hit 'Ghost Hardware', and 9 track DJ friendly double vinyl set, from which some of the beatless pieces have been edited.

Review: As you'd expect given his profile and position within hip-hop, Busta Rhymes eleventh studio album - his first for three years - is something of an all-star affair. The set's panel of executive producers boasts Timbaaland, Swizz Beats and Pharrell Williams, while the impressive roll call of guest MCs, singers and producers includes Giggs, Young Thug, Shenseea, T-Pain and Burna Boy. It has the feel of a celebration of his legacy and work, with s guests delivering hard-hitting lyrics and thoughtful flows over backing tracks that flit between sparse, distorted heaviness (recent single 'Beach Ball'), snappy, horn-sporting post-crunk weightiness ('OK') and G-funk influenced future party jams ('Luxury Life', with its aquatic P-funk bass and dusty, golden era drums).

Review: On his return to China in 2019 after a period away, Brock van Wey noticed a "strange, sound emitting item" on the table. It was a handmade 'steel tongue drum', a unique percussion instrument associated with spirituality and meditation in Asian culture. A few days later, van Wey recorded an extended jam of himself playing it, and later overdubbed electronic sounds, melodies, chords and textures. The result is The Depth of Rain, the long-serving ambient and drone artist's second Bvdub album of 2024. Where some of van Wey's ambient sets can tend towards the intense and claustrophobic, The Depth of Rain is a genuinely melodious, evocative and spring-like affair that ebbs and flows wonderfully throughout, providing entertainment and sonic bliss in equal measure.

Review: Past Inside The Present welcomes the excellent pairing of Brock Van Wey aka Bvdub and vocalists and instrumentalist Lacey Harris aka Inquiri for a brilliantly escapist new ambient EP, Destroyesterday. They combine to majestic effect with 'All The Weight Of The World' a swirling soundtrack with vocals floating amidst the melancholic pads. 'Alone In Crimson' is more textural and suspenseful and 'Please Let Go & Let Me Hold You' then has the spoken word vocals front and centre as intense synth crescendos sweep you up. The title cut is a hypnagogic delight that leaves you adrift in your own dreams.

Review: Originally recorded and released in 1993, On The Move was the last studio album James Brown collaborator Bobby Byrd recorded during his lifetime. While it may have been recorded after Byrd's 1970s heyday, musically it offers full-throttle funk - albeit with slicker and more expansive musical arrangements - of the kind that he and Brown used to deliver in their sleep. It's a great set all told, with this (delayed) 30th anniversary edition also including instrumental versions of all eight original tracks. It also boasts a couple of rare non-album tracks recorded at the time: the slow-motion, horns-and-guitar solo laden 'Sunshine' and the effortlessly funky, low-down and addictive 'Don't Throw Your Love in the Garbage Can'.

Review: BBE has delivered something of a future classic here, as decorated Eastern European harpist Alinha Bzhezhinska and British tenor saxophonist Tony Kofi join forces on a picturesque full-length excursion dedicated to the memory of spiritual jazz maestro Pharoah Saunders. It's a genuinely unique and hugely evocative affair, with Kofi's meandering, mesmeric melodies and inspired improvisations snaking in and out of Bzhezhinska's dreamy harp motifs and melodic percussion instruments (think bells, marimbas, vibraphone, xylophone and so on). It's not a familiar musical palette, but it's one that consistently delivers - and then some. Our picks of a very strong bunch include lucid opener 'Tabula Rasu - Blank Slate', the exotic and psychedelic 'Audite Me - Hear Me', and the picturesque, meditative closing cut, 'Altera Vita - Another Life'.